New England Mariners in Cape Fear

Over these summer months, I have been reading long runs of periodicals which have been donated to the Genealogy Library Center. Inc. by other libraries who have been down-sizing their book collections.  What fun I have had!

Let me share with you an article which appeared in Volume CXXIV, whole number 494 (April 1970) of the New England Historical and Genealogical REGISTER
“New Englanders at Sea:  Cape Fear before the Royal Charter of 24 March 1662/3” by Louise Hall, Duke University. Some 23 pages of carefully documented voyages by second-generation New Englanders to the South.

Cape Fear, Cape Faire, Charles River, Charlestowne, James Citty, Roanoke, Albemarle, Virginea, as well as Jamaica, Bermuda,  and Barbadoes.  Voyages were based on an early map called the Comberford Map of 1657 which has survived today in several copies.  See footnote 1.

Hall identifies an early New England colony of two hundred families  “seated a little to the south…” in Albemarle Sound.  For all those genealogists who have a family tradition that southern ancestors actually originate in New England–keep this thought-provoking article in your mind.  And the settlers that were planted at Cape Fayre early on–brought from Boston and surrounding environs by the “Comttee for Cape ffaire at Boston.” Or by the “Adventurers about Cape Fayre.”

Your favorite genealogist, Arlene Eakle   http://arleneeakle.com

PS  Bad Karma to ignore family traditions.  Always ask “what if…?” and search carefully.  A missing generation anywhere along your ancestral trail can mess up your pedigree.  Be careful.  The coastal trade along the eastern American coast thrived, apparently from the very beginning!

 

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